IDOLS OF THE HEART

by Raymond T. Exum
Crystal Lake Church of Christ
October 5, 1997

I'd like to ask you this morning to look with me at the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. Please look at Isaiah, chapter 44, which has a satire in it on the subject of idolatry. The subject of idolatry does not get a lot of attention today.

Several years ago at New York University a survey was taken of incoming freshmen. They were shown a copy of the Ten Commandments and asked to rate the ten commandments in terms of importance from the most important to the least important. Well, they put murder at the top of the list. They put adultery as the second most important commandment. The commandment against idolatry rated ninth out of the ten commandments in terms of importance, as they saw it. I think that survey indicates that a lot of people do not think that idolatry is a very serious sin.

Throughout the Bible we see that the human race is plagued with idolatry. You may recall in Numbers, chapter 21, that Moses raised a bronze serpent up on a pole. Through the power of God the people could look at this bronze serpent, and they would be healed of the poisonous snake bites they were receiving. We keep reading through the Bible and 700 years later in II Kings 18 we find that Hezekiah had to destroy the bronze serpent because the people were worshiping it as an idol. That is something that we see many times in the human race. Some object that was innocent in itself in time becomes an idol in the minds of some people. Here is a blessing from God that ultimately was turned into an idol. That is very typical.

In the New Testament, we remember that the apostle Paul visited the city of Athens, Greece. You may recall that he was stunned by all the idols in that city. Here was basically the center of ancient civilization, the center of democracy, and yet it was a town full of idols. Outside of the Bible we have a reference to the fact that there were 30,000 idols in Athens, Greece, in the first century A.D. In fact, one secular writer said there were more idols than people in Athens in the first century A.D. So idolatry has always been a problem with the human race.

Here in Isaiah 44 the great prophet Isaiah gives us a satire. He is really ridiculing the idol worship of his day. Please notice beginning at verse 12, and I will read down through verse 17. Notice how satirical Isaiah was about the use of idols in about 750 B.C.

"The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers, and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes, and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, >Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.= But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, >Deliver me, for thou art my god.= "

I think you will see the irony here of what Isaiah is talking about in verse 12. He talks about a man who fashions a metal idol. It's made out of some kind of metal and he works hard at it. He gets tired making a god. Notice in verse 13 down through verse 17, another funny sight here. Here's a man who plants trees out in the forest. He cuts a tree down and he brings it in and part of that tree goes to keep his house warm. He throws a log in the fireplace. Part of that tree goes to cook supper. He is cooking a roast that night. Then he takes another part of that tree and he designs it in the shape of a man and he bows down and worships it. Isaiah is saying how ridiculous can you get to try to fashion a god out of material that you cook your supper on.

Isaiah had it right. Idolatry is a foolish religion. I want to ask you please if you would look at one other scripture this morning. That is back in First Chronicles Chapter 14. If you would turn back, please, earlier in the Old Testament to the book of First Chronicles, look at Chapter 14. The situation here is that Saul had just died after he and David had been engaged in a long civil war. You may recall that Saul had departed from God and he was going to be removed as king. David was going to be his replacement. Saul did not agree with God's decision. He fought it. He tried to kill David on several occasions, and so there was a civil war that broke out between the followers of King Saul and the followers of David, who was supposed to be the next king. That finally was resolved.

We know that after any civil war a country is weaker than it normally would be. And so what we find is that as the civil war ended and as Saul was killed and he took his own life, the Philistines decided that this would be a good time to attack Israel. They were probably correct. Therefore, the Philistines got a huge military force together, and they began attacking Israel southwest of Jerusalem. It was the custom of the Philistines to take their idols with them into battle. Notice please what happened.

This is I Chronicles 14, verses 8 through 12.

"When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went out against them. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, saying, >Shall I go up against the Philistines? And wilt Thou give them into my hand?= Then the Lord said to him, >Go up, for I will give them into your hand.= So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there; and David said, >God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the break-through of waters.= Therefore they named that place Baal-perazim. And they abandoned their gods there; so David gave the order and they were burned with fire."

Please think for a moment about the gods, these idols of the Philistines. We're not told a lot about the religion of the Philistines, but we can make some general statements here. First these Philistine idols were very weak. They were so weak they had to be carried into battle. Can you imagine worshiping a god that has to be carried around with you in a wagon? These idols, these Agods@, had to be carried into battle. It is laughable to think about a god that cannot move by himself.

There is something else here, and that is not only did they have to be taken care of, but they could not offer any help to the Philistines. Notice in verse 12 the Philistines were defeated and they had to leave in such a hurry that they left their gods behind them. They abandoned their gods on the battlefield. The writer of I Chronicles therefore was pointing out how foolish it was for the Philistines to think that these gods that couldn't help them and had to be carried in and out of the battlefield might have saved the lives of the Philistines. David burned these idols with fire.

I want to ask a question for you to consider at this time. That is, what about modern idolatry? Is there such a think as idolatry in the world today? The answer is, absolutely there is idolatry today. Over the years I've seen several articles in some of our brotherhood papers written by our missionaries to Hong Kong and China. Apparently in Hong Kong there is a temple there. The 10,000 Buddha Temple, a temple in Hong Kong, has 10,000 statues of Buddha in it.

Several months ago I was reading a travel magazine and there was a little card in it offering more information about Hong Kong if you send this card in. So I sent it in. They sent me some material from the Hong Kong Tourist Association, and there was a little photograph here of one of the sites to see if you're ever in Hong Kong. It is called the 10,000 Buddha Monastery, one of the things that they're proud of. I thought it was interesting that now they have increased it to 13,000 statues of Buddha according to this material that they sent. There are 13,000 small Buddha statues in the 10,000 Buddha Monastery. It's interesting as you think about these 13,000 statues of Buddha. Not one can move by itself. Every one of those 13,000 idols must be carried. Every one of those 13,000 idols must be dusted off from time to time. All of those 13,000 idols could be destroyed by fire, they could be destroyed by an earthquake, and not one of those 13,000 statues is able to speak a single word.

Somebody might say, A Well that's on the other side of the earth, what about here in the United States of America?@ Did you know that we have several stores here in Crystal Lake where you can buy a statue of St. Joseph? Apparently a lot of people are buying St. Joseph statues because they want to sell their houses. You take the statue of St. Joseph, bury it upside down in the front yard, and that's going to assure that your house is going to be sold if you have it on the market. I have seen that at the True Value Hardware Store on their checkout counter, and at other places in town. Beloved, isn't that idolatry?

In fact, when people bow down to the crucifix today, is that not idolatry? Maybe at one time the crucifix was a work of art to remind people of something, but it has become something far more sinister than that as people bow down to that object. Is that not idolatry today? There are other forms of idolatry today in our area. We now have a palm reader in Crystal Lake. You can pay your money there and you can see into the future (supposedly) by allowing this woman to read your palm. Beloved is that not idolatry, is that not a form of worshiping the creature rather than the creator?

I know a person here in Crystal Lake who is into the use of crystals for healing. You put the various crystals around the body and over the body and this is supposed to heal the person. Is that not also idolatry?

May we think together about idols of the heart. Does it have to be something that we literally bow down to be an idol? I would suggest that it does not have to be a literal object, but that our hearts can have idols in them. What about the love of money? Can money become an idol? Our Lord said this in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, "No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold true to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon is the god of money. Our Lord said you cannot have God and mammon both in first place in your heart. One of them has to go. You cannot serve two masters. Money therefore can become an idol in the hearts of some people.

Remember the rich young ruler. He came to Jesus and said, AWhat do I have to do?@ Jesus said, AWell, keep all the commandments.@ He said, AI've done that. What else?@ Jesus said, AOne thing you lack. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.@ But at these words his face fell and he went away grieved for he was one who owned much property. There was an idol in this young man's heart and that idol was his money. It was the love of money that had taken first place in his heart. Today money can also become an idol in our hearts if we are not careful. We can reach the point where we make decisions based only on how much money that decision is going to make for us.

Somebody might say, "Does this mean that we ought to be poor?" Not necessarily. Just because a person is poor does not mean that he has an inside track with God. On the other hand, our decisions should be based on what God would want us to do rather than on how much money this decision will bring us.

From time to time I like to read some of the classified ads in the Chicago Tribune. In this one that appears in there rather regularly, there is someone who has a little ad that says, "I will do anything legal for money," and there's his phone number. I'm not sure what all that includes. I will do anything legal for money. I certainly hope that would not be the philosophy of members of the body of Christ. We will do anything that is scriptural that God wants us to do, but it's not the case of doing whatever is legal for the sake of money. Let us examine our hearts and see if the love of money has become an idol.

There's another idol that has been raised up in the hearts of a lot of people today and this I think we could call Science and Technology. For many people this literally has become a god. Last July 4, NASA landed the Pathfinder on the surface of Mars, and you would think the universe had just been recreated. Here is a little robot car. It's about a foot tall, two feet long and known as the Sojourner. Of course, the first thing that happened to it was it got stuck on a rock for about four days. Nevertheless, as you read the comments that were made and the statements that were made, it was as if the scientists had become gods.

One engineer was in a state of euphoria. He said, "We have scored a major home run here." The head of NASA made this statement: "We are going to have the most aggressive exploration of our solar system in the history of the human species." Here they all were sort of beating their chests about this great feat that they had done in sending this little robot car to the surface of Mars.

Excuse me? Who put Mars there to begin with? What is a comparison of the planet Mars with this little robot car that gets stuck on a rock? Isn't it the case that many people have placed science in their hearts as a god, and they look at these achievements as if they literally had been carried out by the hand of god? That is not the case. It was the one true God who hung Mars in our solar system, created our solar system, and put our solar system in the universe. That is the one we ought to worship and not the god of science and technology.

I get a magazine every month called Popular Science, and at the end of each issue you can send in scientific questions and they will answer the question for you. It's very interesting to see some of the questions that are sent in. Several months ago there was a question from a man in Bramstown, South Africa, a very simple question: "Why do planetary bodies rotate?" Sounds simple, doesn't it? I mean, that's got to be easy. Why even publish a question that's going to be that easy to answer? Why do planetary bodies rotate? I want to read the answer from the editors of the magazine: "Simply because they got started at one time,@ says George Brink, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Buffalo. AI'm not trying to be silly, but that's it! Everything in the universe rotates or it would collapse into a big lump. How this all began, exactly, is not clear, but somehow when the dust and gases of the universe collapsed together in clumps to form celestial bodies, they got what scientist call angular momentum. That is, they got to rotating,@ says Brink.

Did you catch his answer there? His answer is, we don't have a clue. I mean somehow when things began to cool down from the big bang theory and so forth, things started rotating. Well if the big bang theory is correct, that means there was a giant explosion. When an explosion takes place, do the pieces fly off and start spinning around one another? I've never seen that to happen or to be the case. They go out in all directions. There's no rotation of items in the case of a big explosion. This is why he says, "I'm not trying to be silly, but it just happened. The planets and the moons and various others that are in orbit and that rotate, they just got what scientists call angular momentum. They just started rotating. If they didn't rotate the universe would collapse."

Before we make science a god in our hearts, let us notice that they cannot answer some of the simplest questions about the universe. Science therefore should not be made an idol in our hearts.

Let me suggest another idol of the heart. This would be the god of pleasure; whatever makes us comfortable in life, whatever makes us feel good. A couple of months ago I was calling in an order for the church here to the Quill Corporation. Most of our office supplies and copier supplies come from Quill. So I called in this one day and the lady on the line there said all their computers were down that day. While they were being fixed, she said she would have to take the order on paper and did I feel comfortable with that? Well, I was very nice but what I was thinking was ALady, I don't care if you take it down on paper or if you chisel it in stone.@ I mean, it does not matter to me how you take the order down as long as we get what we order. I thought, isn't that a nineties type question? Do you feel comfortable with this? That is where our society is. Do you feel comfortable with this? Is this going to bring you pleasure or do you have a problem with this on the other hand?

It's all based on what gives us comfort today and what gives us pleasure and what feels good to me as an individual, and this has become an idol in the hearts of many people. They would say don't preach on the harsh words of the Bible. God loves me. God understands what I'm doing and it makes me happy. Therefore, God is going to approve of what I'm doing, so don't make me feel uncomfortable with what you say.

It's interesting that we received a flyer in the paper this past week. I don't know how many also received this, but the cover and the first two pages are all books by a man who is supposed to be a preacher for the Lord's church. He is a disgrace to the Lord's church. He is an absolute false teacher and this is a denominational bookstore, by the way, that put him on the cover of their paper. Nevertheless, on page 2 as they described the various books that he had written. There was one entitled "In the Grip of Grace." The subtitle is "You Can't Fall Beyond His Love." I got to thinking that there is a scripture in the Bible on that subject. There's a scripture that says you can fall beyond the love of God. I found it. It's in the book of Jude.

I want to read verses 20 and 21 as a response to what this man says, that it doesn't matter what you do, you cannot get beyond the love of God. God's going to understand. He's going to be happy with you. In the book of Jude, a little tiny book right before the book of Revelation, notice please verses 20 and 21. "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life." We can fall beyond the love of God. The writer Jude, therefore, says it's up to us. We have to be obedient to God. We don't rebel against God. We pray, it says here, through the Holy Spirit. We build our lives in the most holy faith and by doing those things we keep ourselves in the love of God.

I know that we, as elders, have been told on several occasions by people, well you can't make me get out of this relationship because I'm happy now. God wants me to be happy and therefore God approves of what I am doing. Beloved, we can fall beyond the love of God. We may feel comfortable about it, but we can get outside of the love of God. The apostle Paul said in II Timothy 3, verse 4, that in the last days people would be treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Therefore, pleasure, being comfortable, being happy with oneself, has become a god in the hearts of many people. It doesn't matter what Jesus Christ says any more to many people. It doesn't matter what His apostles or the other inspired writers have said. It is what makes me feel good, what brings pleasure, and that has become an idol.

Please think again about those gods that the Philistines had. When it came right down to it, when the rubber met the road, when crunch time came, the gods of the Philistines failed and it was the God of David that brought about a great victory. Remember that those gods were abandoned on the battlefield, and remember again I Chronicles 14, verse 12, that David ordered those idols to be collected and to be burned. Somebody might say, wasn't that rather harsh? I mean, could he not have been more diplomatic about this and maybe sent these idols back to the Philistines to create peace between the two nations? The truth is that David was carrying out what the law of Moses said. In Exodus 23, verse 24, they were told to burn idols. David therefore was obeying God as he collected these idols of the Philistines and destroyed them by burning.

In our lives today these false idols cannot be called upon for help. When a child dies, what good is money? What good is science and technology? What good is the god of pleasure? When we lose a job, what good are these false idols? When there's a problem in the family, what good are these false idols? What are these false idols going to do, in fact, for any great decision of life? How can these idols of the heart do us any good?

I would encourage us all at this time to examine our own hearts. If there is something in a person=s heart ahead of God, it has to go. It may be something as innocent as a game of golf, or some other sports activity. Not that those things are wrong in themselves, but if it is in first place it has to be demoted immediately. The god of our hearts may be a house that we are looking at that is just perfect. It is what we have always wanted and maybe we have placed the pursuit of that house ahead of God and His kingdom. It could be a job that has taken first place in our hearts. It could be school activities. Whatever is there in first place, if it is not God and Jesus Christ, it has to be removed. The gods of the Philistines failed. Let us remove the false gods that we have today and replace them with the true God, first in our hearts. Jesus Christ demanded to be first. We cannot worship Him and mammon or anything else, but we must worship Christ.

I hope that this lesson has encouraged us all to examine our hearts and to think about these things. If you are prepared at this time to be baptized into the body of Christ, remember the Lord must come first. Nothing else can be in first place, otherwise it is an idol. If you are subject to being baptized at this time, please let us know.

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